Tech Program Manager

To make electronics, you need chips, wafers, transistors, reticles, and... To make these, you must see, test and manufacture them at scale—faster and better than ever before. That's where KLA comes in. Whether you're early in your career or an experienced professional, you'll solve complex challenges, work alongside brilliant minds and help shape the future of technology.

Group/Division

The Semiconductor Products and Customers (Semi PC) business unit designs, builds and sells KLA’s product portfolio to help chip manufacturers meet high-quality standards to enable technologies like AI, data centers, automotive and electronic devices. Our inspection, metrology, and analytics systems detect and monitor defects across logic and memory chips, specialty semiconductors, wafers, reticles, advanced packaging, process equipment and materials. We also develop technologies for specialty processes, IC substrates, and PCB manufacturing, including etch and deposition, component inspection, and imaging and analytics.

What You'll Do

In this role, you will play a key part in advancing business priorities by delivering high-impact work across your area of expertise.

The PLC Program Manager owns the end-to-end lifecycle and execution of a product or major program, from concept and development through qualification, volume release, sustaining, and end-of-life.

The Program Manager serves as the single point of accountability across the relevant functions, ensuring delivery according to business objectives, customer commitments, schedule, budget, quality, and performance targets.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the overall program lifecycle, scope, schedule, budget, resources, risks, and deliverables.
• Build and maintain the integrated program plan and drive execution against key milestones.
• Lead cross-functional teams across R&D, Operations, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Service, Applications, Marketing, and other relevant functions.
• Drive PLC phase-gate readiness and ensure required deliverables and exit criteria are completed.
• Identify and manage technical, operational, supplier, schedule, and business risks.
• Drive alignment, prioritization, and timely decision-making across multiple organizations.
• Coordinate development, qualification, manufacturing readiness, product release, and sustaining activities.
• Drive recovery plans and corrective actions when programs deviate from agreed targets.
• Manage dependencies with suppliers and external partners where applicable.
• Provide clear, data-driven status, risk, and decision visibility to senior management.
• Ensure effective transition from development into manufacturing, sustaining, and ongoing product support.
• Drive continuous improvement throughout the product lifecycle, including quality, cost, reliability, and operational efficiency.

Minimum Qualifications

Qualifications & Experience

• B.Sc. or M.Sc. in Engineering, Physics, or another relevant technical discipline.
• Typically 8+ years of experience in multidisciplinary engineering, product development, or technical program management.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex, cross-functional technical programs.
• Strong understanding of product development and product lifecycle processes.
• Experience working with R&D, Operations, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Quality organizations.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, planning, and risk-management capabilities.
• Ability to lead and influence cross-functional teams without direct authority.
• Strong communication and presentation skills, including interaction with senior management.
• Ability to operate effectively in a global and multidisciplinary organization.

Additional Relevant Experience

The following experience would be considered an advantage, depending on the assigned program:

• Process development and process engineering familiarity, particularly in programs where the product performance depends strongly on manufacturing-process capability.
• Experience with process characterization, process-window definition, DOE, SPC, yield improvement, and process capability analysis.
• Familiarity with transitioning processes from development and qualification into stable high-volume manufacturing.
• Experience working with manufacturing technologies involving materials, coatings, mechanical/optical processes, assembly, or similar multidisciplinary processes.
• Understanding of supplier process qualification, second-source qualification, manufacturing readiness, and process transfer.
• Experience driving manufacturing automation, inspection, test, or automated quality-control methodologies.
• Familiarity with structured root-cause analysis and continuous improvement of process-related quality and reliability issues.

This process-development background is particularly relevant for programs where successful execution requires not only managing the development schedule, but also reaching a stable, repeatable, scalable, and well-controlled manufacturing process.

About KLA

We provide advanced inspection tools, metrology systems, process solutions, and computational analytics that make electronics possible, tackling complex challenges. From electron and photon optics to machine learning and data analytics, we seek perfection at the most fundamental level of matter in the universe. If you want to make electronics that push industries forward and make the world a better place, join us.

Use of AI Statement 

At KLA, our interviews seek to understand your individual skills, problem-solving approach and authentic thinking. To ensure a fair and consistent evaluation, the use of AI, recording tools or other technologies to generate, suggest or provide responses during interviews—whether virtual or in person—is not permitted unless explicitly approved in advance as part of a reasonable accommodation or invited by the interviewer. Use of these tools may interfere with our ability to evaluate your individual qualifications and affect your candidacy. KLA is committed to advancing innovation through responsible AI, and we value candidates who share this mindset.

We offer a competitive, family friendly total rewards package. We design our programs to reflect our commitment to an inclusive environment, while ensuring we provide benefits that meet the diverse needs of our employees.

KLA is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.